Norway Upsets Brazil, Advances to World Cup Quarterfinal

Brazil’s World Cup campaign was brought to an end on July 5 by Norway and its rising star, Erling Haaland.

After holding each other to a scoreless stalemate for nearly 80 minutes, the Rode, Hvite, Bla—meaning Red, White, and Blue—found the back of the net twice off Haaland’s head and boot to secure a 2–1 victory and a ticket to the quarterfinals. Brazil, meanwhile, was handed its earliest exit from the global tournament since 1990.

Haaland drew first blood 79 minutes into play. Andreas Schjelderup launched a cross deep in the attacking end, which turned into a Haaland header front and center that forwarded the ball into the back of the net.

This goal marked Haaland’s 14th consecutive game in which he has scored. It also made him only the eighth European player to score in each of his first four World Cup appearances, and the first to do it since Christian Vieri did it for Italy in 1998.

Haaland’s second goal came in the 90th minute. After Norway burned time off the clock playing keep-away in the midfield, and fought off some attacks from Vinícius Júnior, Neymar Júnior, and the rest of Brazil’s 11, it got the ball back on the attack. Once again getting the ball from Schjelderup, Haaland took one touch and then shipped the ball low and fast from the top of the box to the bottom-right corner of the net.

That second goal tied Haaland with Argentina’s Lionel Messi and France’s Kylian Mbappé in the race for the Golden Boot—the trophy awarded to whomever scores the most goals throughout the World Cup. All three players have seven so far this tournament. It also marked the fourth straight World Cup match in which Haaland scored the winning goal.

This is Haaland’s first-ever World Cup appearance, but his impact on Norway’s national team is palpable. Not only has he earned all four game-winning goals this tournament, but Norway’s only two losses in the past 21 matches came when he did not play a single minute. He has scored 62 goals in his past 54 appearances with Norway’s national team.

However, the win means that Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior has been eliminated from the Golden Boot race. “Vini Jr.” was held scoreless in the match outside New York City. His team’s only goal would come from Neymar Júnior after the referees awarded him a penalty kick 10 minutes into stoppage time. But it proved to be too little too late.

Shortly before that goal, Neymar Júnior also earned the game’s only yellow card as Brazil’s footballers let their frustrations show.

Norway’s goalkeeper Orjan Nyland worked hard to help his team get the win, making five saves throughout the game off of the 15 shots fired by Brazil, including shutting down one other penalty kick.

Next, Norway will face either England or Mexico in Miami on July 11.

The Three Lions and El Tricolor were set to face off in Mexico City at 8 p.m. on July 5. Mexico has not lost a game in its capital city in the past 30 years.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Christian Vieri. The Epoch Times regrets the error.